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The Case for Raw Milk

Raw-milk crusader Michael Schmidt finally got to meet with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty last month after a 37-day hunger strike. But the Premier told him the government had no plans to change the law to legalize raw milk sales, and that it would rely on the best advice of medical experts.

But what is the best advice of medical experts? Perhaps the better question is what is it today - as anyone who closely follows medical news knows, what's considered healthy one week is often feared, or dismissed, the next. Forty years ago, for example, women were told to perform a self-exam every month to check for breast cancer. Last month, experts retracted that advice: Breast self-exams "have no benefit and should not be used."

Dramatic reversals of expert opinion like this are not unusual. Decades ago, approximately 90% of children underwent tonsillectomies; now, only 20% do. Today tonsils are recognized as important organs in children's immune systems. Prior to 1994, experts at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) forbade health-food marketers Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw from putting this statement on fish oil supplements: "Consumption of omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease." Pearson and Shaw challenged the FDA's ruling in court, and after seven years of litigation, the FDA finally capitulated.

During those seven years, a million Americans suffered suddendeath heart attacks, some of which might have been prevented if consumers had been given the information that is now considered established science. Health Canada's website, for instance, now says consuming omega-3 fatty acids may have not only cardiovascular benefits, but also beneficial effects on diabetes, depression, cancer, lupus, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.

Sometimes the about-face comes much more quickly. The drug Avastin was approved by Health Canada for treating breast cancer in February of 2009, but approval was withdrawn last month, because its side effects include the increased risk of death from heart attacks and strokes.

Politicians may find it convenient to sidestep difficult issues by deferring to "the experts." But nobody on Earth is more expert than the individual at answering the crucial question that arises repeatedly in every person's life: What risks am I willing to accept?

Statisticians can tell us the risk associated with skydiving, smoking cigarettes, travelling by airplane or driving a car. What they cannot tell us is whether any particular individual should prefer to accept or reject the risk of those activities. Each individual must consider, and balance, the variables they deem important: How pleasurable will this be? How frightened will I be? How necessary is this? How much will it cost? What alternatives are there? Only the individual is sufficiently expert in each of those areas to reach the proper conclusion for their specific case. If one person decides to travel by airplane while another decides to travel by car, neither of them is wrong. Their values and preferences simply lead them to accept different risks.

Government experts testified at Michael Schmidt's trial that drinking raw milk can expose people to the risk of sickness or death from various pathogens. The people who wish to drink raw milk, or to feed it to their children, are well aware of these risks - the publicity surrounding Mr. Schmidt's prosecution guaranteed that. But the risk of death is actually quite low: No one has died from drinking raw milk in the United States in the past 11 years, even though sales are legal in 26 states.

On the other hand, a study of 8,334 school-aged children in Germany, Austria and Switzerland was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in August, 2011. It reported that children who drank raw milk were less likely to have asthma and allergies than those who drank pasteurized.

Asthma kills approximately 500 Canadians annually. It is not irrational for parents to want to minimize the risk of asthma for their children. And many people have observed from personal experience that they, or their children, cannot digest pasteurized milk, but have no trouble digesting raw.

So every individual can weigh the risks and decide what he is willing to accept. Some will choose pasteurized, some will choose raw. Neither group is wrong.

What Premier McGuinty fails to understand is that the real experts will speak for themselves, one by one. If expert opinion is to govern, individuals should be free to implement the advice prescribed by their own unique expertise about their own unique circumstances and risk tolerance.

- Karen Selick is the litigation director for the Canadian Constitution Foundation and is Michael Schmidt's lawyer.

Has Dalton McGuinty actually done anything helpful to anyone other than his cabinet friends and government sucking sponges since he has been elected multiple times? How does this piece of shit keep winning elections? It is mind boggling.

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The government is fine with drugs like acetaminophen being sold over the counter. Even though it is responsible for many deaths every year. But a willing seller of raw milk is breaking the law by selling it to a willing buyer? Even though there are basically no deaths recently caused by raw milk and there are plenty of other foods that are still available on food shelves every year that have killed people recently. Free country my ass.

In Michael Schmidt's case he is getting the shaft. Goes to court and wins and the government appeals? Retries him and finds him guilty, what kind of BS is that?

Has Dalton McGuinty actually done anything helpful to anyone other than his cabinet friends and government sucking sponges since he has been elected multiple times? How does this piece of shit keep winning elections? It is mind boggling.

Really getting tired of your double-talk mouthing.

I have no love affair for McGuinty but your lover boy Harper is ****ing this country like you wouldn't believe. The mark of a politician can only be felt once he's out of office but Harper is doing his best to make sure his mark is felt in the present and for 20 years to come.

You come here and spout off about McGuinty and others but Harper being the **** up that he is, you say nothing. Real thinkers of independent thought call a spade a spade.

I lost 20 pounds...How? I drank bear piss and took up fencing. How the **** you think, son? I exercised.

Ya, the country is really in shambles because of Harper's policies. You spout off about Harper like is Hitler in the 21st century, but really all I see is him holding this country together in a time many, many others are falling apart. He runs the country with an MA in economics and has kept our head above water.

What has he done that is so bad for you to get your panties in such a bunch about all the time? Considering who the options are running against him, who do you suggest we elect? Seeing as you are the all knowing political and economics expert, who of the running candidates would be the BEST option?

McGunity tried to initiate Sharia Law in Ontario. That alone is worth him being kicked out of office in my opinion.

Seeing as I posted this in the Nutrition section, Id like to bring it back to the milk post. Does anyone in here actually have access to raw milk? Those who live outside Ontario, how easy is it to get?

Ya, the country is really in shambles because of Harper's policies. You spout off about Harper like is Hitler in the 21st century, but really all I see is him holding this country together in a time many, many others are falling apart. He runs the country with an MA in economics and has kept our head above water.

What has he done that is so bad for you to get your panties in such a bunch about all the time? Considering who the options are running against him, who do you suggest we elect? Seeing as you are the all knowing political and economics expert, who of the running candidates would be the BEST option?

McGunity tried to initiate Sharia Law in Ontario. That alone is worth him being kicked out of office in my opinion.

On ipad so typing not easiest but will respond to last part for now.

There were no better alternatives than harper which is why i voted for him and so we could stop this minority gov't bullshit.*

Ahh screw it, i'll type it out spelling be damned.

Harper:

Whopping deficit increases
Increase in public service (read: size of government) since he took office
Lack of transparency (which he rallied against as the opposition)
Senate appointments despite railing for senate reforms - can't beat'em may as well load it in your favour eh?
Bloated cabinet
Pushing personal ideology (proven crime reduction, cost reducing facilities like insite in favour his crime policies)
MP muzzling forcing Defacto Party discipline
Attempting to implement a single securities regulator (thank god the courts denied)
Railed against many things in opposition that he now favours as majority
Wants to end the CHA (http://www.hilltimes.com/news/2011/0...therwise/27848)

The list goes on and on.*

I am not political or economic expert in the least (neither is Harper for chrit sakes, take a look at his employment history - career politician basically. Just necause you study somethimg doesnt make you an expert at it, that takes actually doing - something academics fail to understand) but what i am not is a blind follower. You bitch other politicians for the same things that your beloved harper does. Either you hate it across the board or your a hypocrite - that's my issue.

Of course McGuinty sucks. They all suck. But you want to know why McGuinty keeps getting elected? Because the other choices suck worse. Hudak was an empty shirt (i should know i've consulted for the dipshit). John Torey, I thought was the guy but he had zero platform - just ran on a platform of "i'm not McGuinty" (same strategy as Hudak, btw).

Harper elections are the same thing - there's no one else worth voting for.*

So back to my point: you're a hypocrite

I lost 20 pounds...How? I drank bear piss and took up fencing. How the **** you think, son? I exercised.

I never claimed to be an expert at anything, but I do understand that choices must be made and you can never satisfy everyone. I think all things considered he is doing a MUCH better job than anyone else would have in his shoes, especially another ultra corrupt Liberal.

I would have thought an "Im not McGunity" platform, although not much of a platform at all, would have been enough. It was enough for me anyway.

Im hardly a hypocrite. I agree with almost all of the decisions Harper has made since being elected. Nice of you to cut and paste some of his failures though. Good on you.

I never claimed to be an expert at anything, but I do understand that choices must be made and you can never satisfy everyone. I think all things considered he is doing a MUCH better job than anyone else would have in his shoes, especially another ultra corrupt Liberal.

I would have thought an "Im not McGunity" platform, although not much of a platform at all, would have been enough. It was enough for me anyway.

Im hardly a hypocrite. I agree with almost all of the decisions Harper has made since being elected. Nice of you to cut and paste some of his failures though. Good on you.

There only one cut and paste (the link).

I actually keep tabs on what's going on. Of course it was enough of a platform for you since you're a blood sheep bahhh bahhh bahh.

LOL at the curruption comment. All political parties are currupt, even your beloved harper but you don't care about that because Harper is a reformer err conservative. Yeah, no hypocrite there. Bahhhhh bahhhhhh bahhhhh

I lost 20 pounds...How? I drank bear piss and took up fencing. How the **** you think, son? I exercised.